Jacob's Journey

Words cannot describe what I felt the morning I heard the news. I woke up, laid in bed, reached for my iPhone and checked my email. I started deleting spam and saw a message from Sara Woodward, my dear friend and roommate from Snow College. She entitled the subject: Jacob. I knew it had to be good. Her message was simple, only a few sentences.

"For those of you who don't know yet or haven't heard, our Jacob was diagnosed with leukemia this last weekend."

My heart felt heavy as I read the sentence over and over again. Tears welled in my eyes. The next sentence is what probably surprised me the most.

"If you have to pick your cancer, this is the one to pick. It has an overall survival rate of 95% We are just facing over 3 years of Chemotherapy."

Optimistic. The best kind to get. Of course she would look at the glass as half full, she always did.

"We stayed in the hospital for 5 days and we're home now. We started a blog to try and keep everyone up to date. It's not totally up to date yet (sorry about that) but it's coming."

Five days. This is just the beginning and already five days! And she's apologizing to us for not keeping us up to date. Of course we want to know but to apologize to us! I was set back, astonished, couldn't talk.

"Thank you for all of your love and prayers. I can not tell you what that means to us.
We love you,
~Sara Woodward"

Gratitude. Of course I would pray! It's the least I could do.

I read the email over and over again. I cried in my bed thinking of her family and her sweet Jacob. He's the oldest of three, yet still so very young.

I have been asked recently about my birthday and what I would like and honestly I would like everyone to donate to Sara's family. Even with their insurance it will still cost them nearly $20,000 out of pocket. If you cannot afford to make any monetary donation please make a card, send a card, write a letter, draw a picture or just say well wishes. Pray. Everyone please pray. Honestly rather then writing on my facebook page, "Happy Birthday," send her and her husband a message on facebook. This is what I want and this is what they need.

In Sara's email she did include the blog for her son. Please read it by clicking here, it's called Jacob's Journey. I encourage all of you to read it from the beginning.

When I lived in Utah, Sara and her family took me in for Christmas when I decided I wasn't going home. They treated me as their own and were SO very kind. Please help me to pay their favor forward to them.

In the blog you will read, when Sara listened to the team of doctors they said she would be in for a marathon. Her response was, "I always wanted to run a marathon." Follow Jacob's Journey and run this marathon with them. Please I beg you, help them.

Hurry Up and Wait

The slogan of the military, most don't know unless you have been in it. Honestly no one can understand that grueling task unless you've experienced it. As a spouse it was frustrating, even more so when you are dealing with it.

Recently I've noticed myself pushing Bradley. "Hurry up." "Get your shoes." "Let's go." The list can go on and on. Tonight I listened to my husband, "Bradley, hurry up let's brush your teeth." "Bradley, hurry up clean your room." "Bradley hurry up and finish reading the page, we have an entire book."

I have recognized myself hurrying my son along a few times here and there but it didn't hit me until I listened to my husband talk to Bradley. He's only three and will be out on his own in what will seem like a short time, according to seasoned parents. It seems like yesterday he was born. Three years have gone by so quickly and I don't want to hurry up. I want to enjoy my kids, now if I could just get them to age a little slower.

To Can or Not to Can...

That is the question.

Labor Day I learned how to can from a good friend of mine, Ginny. I told her I wanted to can salsa and sure enough she needed to can some. She had fresh cut tomatoes in a large bowl, I cut up peppers and her daughter diced onion. She told me the ins and outs of canning and what we needed to do. The particulars of cleaning the rims and when things aren't done properly how the jars will break in your water bath. She taught me how to listen for the water to boil a room away. Then when it was all said and done, it was to wait...until you heard the "pop." It is the most wonderful noise to anyone who cans. It means you sealed your product and it will be good to store for months.

Ginny's salsa is to die for and five hours after arriving I was leaving with my very own jar, I helped make. In fact as I am typing I am eating it now. It's delicious.

After much discussion with my husband we decided I should try it on my own. Today was my first adventure. I LOVE it and I made my secret salsa recipe. I was sweating it out, wondering if I got out the air bubbles, if my jars would break, if they would seal....sure enough it happened. Pop, pop, pop. They sealed! I now have six large jars of salsa! I am ecstatic. Imagine the amount of money we are going to save, how much money we have already saved! By canning my own salsa today I saved about $30 in the long run. My husband wants me to can jellies and jams next. I want to try apples for baking and apple sauce. I can't wait. I want to go apple picking tomorrow and pick pounds upon pounds of apples. I want to make gifts for friends and show them my new talent.

Most importantly the person I'd first give anything to would be Ginny, the beautiful, sweet friend who taught me.